KEY WORDS

Integrated Actions to Mitigate Environmental Risks in the Mediterranean Sea

PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT

Med-IAMER provides recommendations on integrated trans-boundary actions required to mitigate environmental risks in the Mediterranean Sea by putting together knowledge on regional Coastal and Maritime Environmental Pressures (CMEP) and by assessing their gaps. It proposes data Integration and analysis approaches, and maps the condition of existing trans-boundary mechanisms to mitigate these risks, focusing on cooperation and conflicts, and involving regional stakeholders. Med-IAMER proposes an integrated environmental status assessment to mitigate environmental risks to be addressed at trans-boundary scale in the Mediterranean Sea. The approach draws on the main pressures and the conservation level in the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic-Ionian ecoregions to identify spatial hotspots of environmental pressures.

MAIN MESSAGES

The integration of data on environmental pressures caused by different sectors is crucial to achieve a complete picture of the complex nature of their potential impacts, namely cumulative impacts, on coastal and marine environments;

Harmonized trans-boundary socio-economic and environmental data, at higher scales and good resolutions are required, in order to analyze spatially explicit patterns of environmental change;

More MPAs of sufficient size should be designated in areas of particular importance for marine biodiversity in ecoregions other than the Western Mediterranean, especially in the Non-European coastal habitats and high / deep sea biomes, to reach the 10% MPA coverage target stated in the CBD at national and ecoregional scales;

The level of management effort is a key contributor to mitigate pressures and to reduce impacts on biodiversity in MPAs located in areas with high surrounding pressures.

Environmental pressures (e.g invasive alien species) seem to appear by geographical characteristics: closed and less exposed sea regions tend to have a higher sensitivity to pressures resulting in higher impacts. Measures and political efforts should therefore consider and adapt as threats are thus ecoregion-specific;

Need of political incentives to coordinate multi-sectoral political efforts in all relevant sectors (e.g. tourism, environment, industry) towards an integrated type of sustainable management;

The accounting of spatial and temporal trends in the Mediterranean coastal and marine environment is crucial for monitoring long term effectiveness of policies towards sustainable development in the region;

Localized impacts on marine environment resulting from specific maritime uses could be very damaging to biodiversity if not monitored adequately; this calls for enhancing data availability to support monitoring efforts.

FINAL REPORT ON MED-IAMER RECOMMENDATIONS (AVAILABLE HERE) Incorporating regional stakeholders’ inputs on data needs and account for their judgment on the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms and trans-boundary arrangements put in place to overcome trans-boundary conflicts in the region. So far the final report has not been submitted yet, but in the coming month it will be available on the project´s website.

TECHNICALS HINTS

Data harmonization and comparability of methods through the encouragement of the continuity of data harmonization downstream and the addition of further details upstream, via the close collaboration between public data producers at regional and country levels, insuring data reliability, stability, and comparability in terms of methods and data generation. A network of researchers with regional and national statistics institutions would feed into this basis and encourage the continuity of data harmonization downstream / addition of further details upstream. It would function on 4 main pillars: (1) a better understanding of local data, (2) an improvement of capacities and techniques for acquiring and compiling local data, (3) a solid approach for the harmonization and definition of indicators, (4) the setting of common tools in GIS and interactive cartography platforms.

GOVERNANCE HINTS

An integrative policy framework implementation for achieving the vision of a sustainable Mediterranean region and the deployment of sustainable development policies to insure economic development, reduce social disparities, ensure sustainable management of natural resources, and improve governance at the local, national, and regional levels. The implementation of such a framework would involve multi-sectorial experts, researchers, and policy makers to define sustainability for their surroundings and to set the way of measuring it as a self-monitoring benchmark intended to support stakeholders monitoring the sustainability of their developments using a region-wide Sustainable Development Indicator System.

SYNERGIES WITH OTHER PROJECTS

Creation of synergies during COM&CAP seminars with several other Med Maritime Integrated Projects: data and knowledge transfer was undertaken with the projects MEDTRENDS, CAIMANs, NEMO and MITOMED; the access to stakeholder groups of the different maritime integrated projects provided Med-IAMER the possibility of a wider and more complete consultation and validation of its results.

The SDIMED web map portal, developed in a previous project Med Programme is used to disseminate the spatial data (results) developed within the project in an openly accessible platform.

Possible capitalization on existing data bases (Emodnet, MAPAMED) and project results (e.g. ESaTDOR, PEGASO, PERSEUS) as well as local (UMA Campus of Excellence Andalucía Tech and CEIMAR), national (e.g. EME-Pesca) to regional initiatives (e.g. MedPan) to build new knowledge on Coastal and Maritime Environmental Pressures.